The watch
He volunteered to be first to do the watch. He jumped into a tree and climbed all the way up, found a comfortable branch to sit on and stayed there, eyeing the surroundings and listening. It was a bright night, moon shining from between the clouds and everything was lit with a cold, blue light, making all the trees to look dead, or even petrified. Shikamaru started replaying the little chats he had with Temari, today and way before that. Their first fight, the rescues, constant quarrels. The way people looked at them when they were teasing each other harshly and laughing at that after a while. Temari wasn't just like any girl – every other one he knew would be insulted by things he teasingly said to Temari, but she always found the best way to respond and usually she won. She wasn't easy to control. More like impossible to control. And in a way she reminded him of his mother. Scary and forceful. One wrong move – bang, you're dead. Temari smiled a lot, but you always had to be aware of the hurricane, sleeping inside her. However, Shikamaru wasn't afraid of that. He felt like he could handle all of this. He didn't want to – of course – because that's just too troublesome. But she was an interesting one. Maybe that's why he liked her – he loves puzzles. Suddenly Shikamaru woke up from this daydreaming and found himself smiling.
His watch was over and Toru changed him. He slit into the tent silently, trying not to wake Temari as he lay besides her. He looked at her face but it was too dark to see if she's sleeping or not. She, who had become so close to him without any effort from either side. A rarely seen friend, but not the one you'd do a usual "catch up talk". Their conversations were very different compared to other people, and both of them seemed to be glad about that and long for those chats. It was surprising thing – they were so different you could never think they could get along or even become friends. None of the two expected they'd understand each other so well.
The moon rose and was shedding it's cold light through the fabric of the tent. Shikamaru couldn't sleep because of many thoughts running in his head. Temari looked so peaceful, so he just kept staring at her beautiful face. A sleeping beauty which turns into a little devil when awake. With this though going through his mind Temari opened her eyes. This was so unexpected it gave Shikamaru a shiver.
He thought she'd make one of her snappy mocking comments upon noticing his stare. But instead she did something very unexpected - she came closer to Shikamaru, got comfy, gave him a sleepy look, closed her eyes and fell asleep again. Basically she made impossible for him to fall asleep now.
Shikamaru was fighting this unknown urge to put his hand around this girl and make her warm. He never quite felt that with any other girl – even though there were hundred times similar to this with Ino or other Konoha girls during the missions. But Temari… she made him want to take care of her – the girl who needed that less than any other girl he knew.
The thoughts
Temari was the last to take watch so had a chance to observe sunset before her companions woke up. Normally she would simply enjoy the view of nature – deepest shade of green around in the forest, the sun shining through the trees, birds waking up, dew fallen on the grass, shining like little diamonds in the sun. That was not a usual site for her, being born and raised in sand. But today, instead of contemplating the view, she caught herself thinking about this guy sleeping in the tent just behind her. For some reason she didn't know she kept reminiscing about all the times they have met before and what they spoke. And that look… Shikamaru changed the way he looked at her. She didn't think she would have missed it if it had happened before.
That look just makes her sting somewhere inside. Same thing happened this night, when she briefly woke up to see those brown eyes staring straight at her.
She wondered if she changed a way she looks at him too.
She let out a deep sigh and decided to wake Shikamaru and Toru – it was getting bright and there was a challenging day ahead.